Welcome to our kitchen that truly is the heart of our home! One of life's greatest pleasures is enjoying good food with family and friends. Here you will find recipes, tips for frugal cooking, how-tos for food preservation especially canning and anything else food related. Tea is brewing and warm cookies are fresh from the oven. Please sit a spell and enjoy your stay.

Pages

I am a wife, mother and grandma who enjoys the many aspects of homemaking. A variety of interests and hobbies combined with travel keep me active. They reflect the importance of family, friends, home and good food.

Sticky Post - Warning: 4ever Recap reusable canning lids. The reports are growing daily of these lids losing their seal during storage. Some have lost their entire season's worth of canning to these seal failures!

Thursday, September 06, 2007

The heavy canning season is in full swing here. I've already processed three hampers of tomatoes and have one sitting ready for processing today. However, there are also things like onions, peaches, grapes and apples to preserve so it will be quite busy here for the next couple of months.

I can foods year round so my pressure canner is in use at least weekly except during the heaviest canning season (May to October) when it can be in use as often as three times a day. A good rule to follow is always test your pressure canner before the heaviest canning season and any time you have even the slightest concern over the canner's performance.

Method: To test the pressure canner, follow your manufacturer's recommendation for the amount of water in the canner. Check the gasket, vent and pressure release. Prepare at least three 500 ml (pint) jars by sterilizing then fill with boiling water leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Adjust the two piece caps. Place them in the canner. Place the lid on, bring to a boil then vent as per your manufacturer's recommendation. Place the regulator on the vent and bring to pressure. Process for 15 minutes at 10 lb pressure. Turn off the heat and allow the canner to depressurize. Remove the jars and allow to cool undisturbed. Check for a good seal then label and store.

Note: Since you are testing your canner's performance, do not leave it unattended. You need to observe if the seal (gasket) is failing or if the canner is doing any number of things that is not normal. Any abnormalities should be corrected before using again.

My rule of thumb for anything I'm preserving is use more than one method. The reason for this is if for some reason the electricity or even freezers failed to the point of spoiling the food, I would have at least two (canned, dried) longer term storage back-ups. I think this is the frugal approach to home preserving. I also follow the rule of using home preserving to make things convenient for my style of cooking. Making my own ready to use convenience foods means that I can still put a nice meal on the table with little effort on the days I don't feel like a lot of prep work.

My husband picked up a 50 lb bag of Spanish onions. A good portion of these will be used during the canning season with another bag stored in the pantry to be used fresh. I keep several pints of chopped onions in the freezer. Not only are these convenient but they are very easy to prepare. A large Spanish onion will yield a bit more than a pint bag for vacuum sealing. I coarsely chop the onions, place it in the vacuum sealer bag, vacuum seal with the FoodSaver then freeze.

Onions will keep for quite sometime when properly stored but I came across a method for canning carmelized onions that I just had to try. We have carmelized onions quite often so the idea of canning them was interesting. I only made six 250 ml jars and will likely use them to blend into mashed potatoes. It was more of a can I do this and novelty recipe.

The end result was a gorgeous and versatile product for the pantry shelf. I was quite pleased with the results! The carmelized onions looked rather pretty in the jars as well.

Pickled onions have always been one of my favourite pickles so I make a batch each year. It is important to use the small white pearl onions. Sometimes they are labeled as pickling onions. Pickling onions is a two step process involving an overnight soak in salt water so do plan extra time for this.

Wash onions then cover with boiling water in a large bowl. Cover and let stand 4 minutes. Drain, rinse in cold water and peel. Place into large bowl. Pour salt and boiling water over the onions. Cover and let stand on the counter overnight. Drain. Rinse with cold water and drain again.

Prepare the brine by combining the last three ingredients in a saucepan. Place the pickling spice in a tea ball or make a small bag using a double layer of cheesecloth. Put into the mixture and bring to a boil. Boil 5 minutes. Discard the spice. Add the onions and return to a boil. Fill hot, sterilized jars with onion leaving 1 inch headspace. Ladle the brine over the onions leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe the rims. Adjust the two piece lids. Process for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath canner.

22
food lovers commented:

Hi Natalie :) I have very limited experience with okra. The local grocery stores don't carry it. I tried to grow it but was unsuccessful. When I can get okra fresh in the city, I use it up instead of preserving. I did can a couple of jars awhile ago just to see how they would come out but had nothing other than fresh to compare it to. Okra is a natural thickener so the liquid does thicken in the jar and because of the processing it wouldn't have the firmer texture of frozen okra so might not be suitable for some dishes.

What I do when I'm not sure if canning is better than freezing or visa versa is to make a small batch of each. Then I compare the work involved, colour, texture and flavour. That gives me an idea of which I prefer. Then the food is processed accordingly always using at least two preserving methods usually canning and freezing. For example, we prefer frozen corn to canned so if I have 12 doz ears, 9 doz will be frozen while 3 doz will be canned.

The choice is also very much dependant on available freezer space too. I'm currently working with a second chest freezer smaller than my old one meaning less freezer space so I will be relying more on canning until I get things organized better.

Hi lalyc2000! Thanks for visiting and your lovely compliment. No water is added to the caramelized onions before canning. Just fill the jars an process as per directions in the recipe for caramelized onions. I hope you enjoy them :)

Hi Anonymous and thanks for visiting. No you cannot process onions or potatoes using a water bath canner. They are low acid so must be processed using a pressure canner at the appropriate pressure and timing as indicated in the recipe.

I would love to have the recipe for canning carmalized onions. You don't give the processing time or the recipe you used to carmalize the onions. Are you willing to share that with me...Appreciate it! TeresaEmail address is: telkins@smt-net.com.

Hi, I was unable to find the recipe for the carmelized onions as well. I looked in the archives but maybe I missed it. I tried canning mine. I did 15lbs of pressure (I'm close to 1200 elevation) for 70 minutes for half pints. I just want to be sure I did the time and pressure correctly. My presto canner manual doesn't mention onions in the vegetable section yet I know they may be canned.

I also would like the recipe for the caramelized onions. I am new to pressure canning and can't seem to find any recipes for this. Could you either email me the instructions or maybe post it. Thankslindamchild@gmail.com

Your jars of Caramelized Onions look delicious... could you please e-mail me the recipe and canning process you used, it would be greatly appreciated. My e-mail is: storehousesuccess@yahoo.com Thanks and Be Blessed! Annette